Judge's ruling 'saves school sports days'

Decision that strips boy of compensation awarded after breaking his arm in fall from swing is hailed as a 'victory for common sense'. Chris Boffey reports

12:01AM BST 25 Sep 2003

A high court judge acted to save school sports days yesterday by stripping a boy of the £4,250 compensation he received after falling off a playground swing and breaking his arm.

In reversing an earlier court decision, Mr Justice Gross said that if "word got out" that the youngster, who was five at the time of the accident, had won his case "the probability is that sports days and other pleasurable sporting events will simply not take place".

"Such events could easily become uninsurable, or only insurable at prohibitive cost," he told the High Court in London.

He accepted arguments by Mr David Sanderson, acting for the school, that it would be "madness" to hold the school legally responsible for what was a pure accident.

The judge also ordered Ryan Simonds's family to pay the school's costs, estimated by Isle of Wight Council to be several thousand pounds.

However, Moore and Blatch, the solicitors who acted for Ryan, fought the case on a "no win, no fee" and are expected to pick up the total legal bill, which could be more than £10,000. Last night the solicitors refused to comment.

Ryan and his parents sued the Isle of Wight Council in 1997 when he was a pupil at Chillerton County Primary School, near Newport.

During a school sports day he and his mother, Michelle, 36, enjoyed a picnic lunch about 50 metres away from where older classmates were playing cricket. She left to go shopping and pointed him back to where the teachers were gathered.

Seconds later she heard Ryan scream. Instead of returning to the teachers he had strayed on to a nearby playground and jumped off a swing, while pretending to be Superman, badly fracturing his right arm.

When the award for damages was made at Southampton County Court in March this year Judge Norman Rudd said the school had been aware of the hazard posed by the swings and should have immobilised them or taped them off.

In overturning his decision Mr Justice Gross said: "Playing fields cannot be made free from all hazard. I cannot conclude that the school was in breach of duty."

He said that, when dealing with compensation claims, the courts "must keep in mind a sense of reality and common sense at some point". No amount of supervision by teachers would have prevented the accident and it was "slightly unreal" to suggest that the school owed a legal duty to warn Ryan's mother of the hazards of unsupervised play on swings.

The court was told that in the interests of "generosity and public spiritedness" the council would not be seeking repayment of the £250 Ryan had already received but the decision outraged his mother.

She said: "It has taken six years and now the courts have overturned the decision and said they won't give us the money. I don't know why this appeal judge decided to go against it when the case the council were bringing forward was exactly the same as before.

"It seems ludicrous to me. The whole judicial system has contradicted itself. The council just threw money at it as they don't like losing.

"People who think we are just money grabbers can say what they like. What was at stake here was a matter of principle."

Mrs Simonds, who lives with her husband Allan and six children, in Rookley, Isle of Wight, added: "Ryan was in hospital for two days and had an hour-long operation on three separate breaks in his arm. During that time and ever since no one has even come to say sorry.

"I'd like to see what one of these teachers would say if it happened to one of their children."

Mr Simonds, 40, a civil servant, said his son had to attend special classes for handwriting and had stopped swimming since the incident.

He said: "I love my son and seeing him go through this was horrible. We have decided not to take it any further and get on with our lives."

Rod Warne, the Isle of Wight's senior risk and insurance officer, said: "This has been a victory for common sense. If this decision had been allowed to stand it could have seen an end to school sports days and other similar events throughout the country simply because schools and other organisations could not afford the prohibitive premiums that insurers would charge to cover them."

John Dunford, the general secretary of the Secondary Heads Association, applauded the judge's decision.

"Finally we have a sensible decision on compensation which will, I hope, act as a deterrent to parents taking schools to court for everything that goes wrong," he said.

"This litigious culture means that schools are constantly looking over their shoulder and facing insurance costs that they cannot afford."

Compensation and legal costs are costing schools more than £200 million a year.